Smoke rises after strikes from the US-led coalition in the Syrian town of Ain al-Arab, known as Kobane by the Kurds, in the southeastern village of Mursitpinar, Sanliurfa province, on October 10, 2014. Coalition aircraft on Friday afternoon carried out two fresh air strikes on Islamic State (IS) jihadists in the Syrian border town of Kobane, an AFP correspondent reported. Photo: ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images

Smoke rises after an U.S.-led air strike in the Syrian town of Kobane Ocotber 8, 2014. U.S.-led air strikes on Wednesday pushed Islamic State fighters back to the edges of the Syrian Kurdish border town of Kobane, which they had appeared set to seize after a three-week assault, local officials said. The town has become the focus of international attention since the Islamists' advance drove 180,000 of the area's mostly Kurdish inhabitants to flee into adjoining Turkey, which has infuriated its own restive Kurdish minority-- and its NATO partners in Washington -- by refusing to intervene. Photo: Reuters/Murad Sezer

However, the creation of such an area, similar to the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea, now appears to be a crucial proponent in the fight against ISIS, despite its geo-political implications.

"If Syrian citizens can return to Syria and be protected in an area across the border, there's a lot that would commend that,” said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in a Wednesday statement. “You'd have to guarantee safety, that there wouldn't be attacks by the government ... so it needs a thorough examination. We're all in favor of looking at this very closely."

The idea for a buffer zone would require Syrian air defense systems to be disabled, a no-fly zone implemented and an increase in combat patrols. But more crucially, it would place the U.S. in direct confrontation with Syrian president Bashar Assad, potentially bringing further strain to a region that is already struggling to contain the ISIS threat.

But more than just a safe area for Syrian refugees, some see the buffer zone as having the potential to become a fledgling rebel state where Kurdish fighters could be trained in safe confines before crossing back into Turkey or Syria.

“It would mainly be a place where an alternate government structure would take root and for the training of rebels,” said Frederic C. Hof, a former American envoy to the Syrian opposition, in a Thursday New York Times report.

Jen Psaki, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman, said on Thursday that an American envoy, including Gen. John R. Allen and deputy special envoy Brett H. McGurk, are in Ankara to meet with Turkish officials. She said that trip “emphasized that urgent steps are immediately required to degrade ISIL’s military capabilities and ongoing ability to threaten the region.”